Unaccompanied migrant children in talks to be placed at Camp Roberts facility
MONTEREY COUNTY, Calif. (KION-TV) -- Camp Roberts in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties may soon be home for unaccompanied migrant children attempting to come into the United States.
In a statement to KION news, The Department of Health and Human Services said Camp Roberts is under "active consideration."
It also reads "When we make the decision to activate an Emergency Influx Site for unaccompanied migrant children we will notify state and local authorities as well as members of Congress."
This comes after reports Friday that the Pentagon cleared the use of Camp Roberts to temporarily house migrant children traveling alone.
The question many have is whether any of the children at the border have ties to people on the Central Coast. Watsonville Immigration Attorney Ariadna Renteria Torres says regardless of where the children came from, their journey has been a difficult one.
At the US border, 13-year-old Jordy Padilla and his 8-year-old brother are just two of the thousands of children who ave traveled to the United States in search of their family.
“I don’t know my mother, my father came over here a month ago…I don’t know where he is," says Jordy.
It did not take long for Jordy and his brother to be detained by border authorities...many children often don't make it, a tragic reality Torres says happens all too often.
“Exposed to disease, exposed to abuse, especially if they are being handed over to a smuggler, they’re exposed to physical, emotional and sexual abuse," says Torres.
Torres says children at the border should generally not be held at the border more than 72 hours, but because the number of children attempting to cross the border continues to grow on a large scale, border authorities are left with no choice but to extend the time the children are held as they work to find caretakers.
Only now, it's possible Camp Roberts could be an option, with the Federal Government announcing it could use that National Guard Base as one of the locations along the Central Coast to temporarily house an unclear number of children.
"I believe there are 220 certified agencies around the country that the government have contracted with to ensure that they place the kids there temporarily and they will receive health services, proper food, that they are stabilizing their basic needs,” says Torres.
KION reached out to US Congressman Jimmy Panetta, whose office says he is expecting to hear final confirmation from the HHS some time in the next two days on whether or not Camp Roberts will be utilized as a temporary shelter for the migrant children.
